Owning a Conversation

You know that one guy? That guy who always asks the “600 pound gorilla in the room” questions during meetings guy. We all love and hate that person, but the moments you love them are when they ask the question everyone is eager to bring up. They are questions like, “how we are going to support our new product?”, or, “how are we going to handle messaging to customers about this sensitive topic?”. Truly, it can be anything that affects the team that you haven’t gotten clarification on. I have personally seen this happen on many teams with a variety of different leaders with varying degrees of expertise. I have seen leaders excel in these circumstances and others fail. Here are some insights of what I have gained from my observations in being an inquiring team member.

• When delivering information, be truthful, confident, and thorough - Questions are going to come up that you might not know the answers to. It is best to be direct with information you provide, and to not speculate uncertainties. Even with lack of knowledge, your team will appreciate honesty. Keep eye contact with people in the room, and engage others to ask questions and offer ideas. Finally, be thorough with your explanation and plans moving forward.
• Evaluate the concerns of your team - As a leader, you are recognized for how well your team performs. Unanswered questions and concerns can ultimately lead to a decline in employee morale. The status of morale can then affect job performance.To avoid this, do daily fifteen minute standups with your group. This enables them to have a voice and share current events. Give each member of your team weekly, individual time with you to bring up issues confidentially. Keep communication open. This will allow you to know their strengths and needs, and help facilitate them to achieve their peak performance.
• Prepare for what you think could be future concerns - While you are gathering information from your team, you should also be looking at the information you know and how it will affect your team in the next 30, 60, 90+ days. Any questions that you can have readily answered will make you look more confident to your team.
• Bubble up the concerns to your directors or supervisors - When you get a legitimate concern from a team member, bring that to your leadership as soon as possible. Make sure you have information about where the concern is being derived from, how urgent you feel it is to address, and what you think could remedy the situation. A bonus here is if you can collect data based on your team’s concerns. Having empirical and anecdotal evidence will strengthen your position and will lower the chance that the concern is dismissed by your superiors.
• Keep your management accountable - When you present this to your leadership, ask for a time-table for when they will have an answer for you in regards to your team member’s concerns. Throw an invite on their calendar to remind them of the agreed upon update. Push for resolution when you can, and make sure your team member is aware that you are fighting for their cause. Having a certain level of transparency with leadership lets your front line teams know you care and gives you the ability to create trust company wide.
• Give updates, even if there isn’t a great one - This can be a deal breaker. If you aren’t following up on what you said you would do, you instantly lose credibility with your team. That can lead to team members going above you with their concerns, not respecting or listening to future information you provide, and members ultimately leaving the company. To make sure this doesn’t happen, set deadlines for yourself, bring updates to the team, and provide whatever information you have available. Good, bad, or indifferent, your team will know that you are looking out for them.

Like most things in business, sometimes you can’t be this cut and dry, especially when it comes to giving information to your team. You can offset this by using these tips and keeping communication a top priority. Your employees don’t have to know everything to feel confident in your position as their leader. Knowing that their leadership has their back, and striving to be servants to their success should give them some peace of mind. Having that kind of connection with your team will keep everyone happy, productive, and ready to achieve the goals you have in store for them!

Please let me know if you had any success with any of these tips - thanks for reading!